Barmore Surpasses Cornell For County Clerk Position

November 6, 2013

Barmore, a three-term Republican legislator in the current District 9, won 55 percent of the votes over Democratic candidate Lori Cornell in Tuesday's election. Barmore, a resident of Gerry, garnered 13,458 votes compared to 11,139 votes for Cornell, a two-term legislator in the current District 12 from Jamestown. Both candidates will continue to serve in the county legislature through the end of the year.

"I couldn't do it alone. I had to rely on all of you people," said Barmore, who thanked his "Lord and savior, Jesus Christ."

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Barmore delivered his speech to supporters at Roberto's Restaurant on East Second Street in Jamestown, the Republicans' election night headquarters.

In her concession speech at the Democrats' election night headquarters in the Reg Lenna Civic Center, Cornell admitted she would have loved to serve as county clerk, but wished Barmore good luck in the position. Cornell's future political plans are unknown.

Barmore said during his campaign that he intends to uphold former Chautauqua County Clerk Sandy Sopak's standards of excellence and efficiency.

In the final days of the election, Cornell campaigned with a focus on streamlining the county clerk's office through the use of technology and lowering costs.

Both candidates stressed the importance of the "Renew Locally Campaign," urging residents to renew their drivers' licenses at the DMV rather than using online services, to keep revenue local. As well, "Return the Favor" cards, which allow veterans to receive discounts at participating local businesses, were an important aspect of both campaigns.

"We owe to our veterans to not make them take a special trip to the office for the services they have earned," Cornell said during her campaign.

"I've been promoting since May, it's not my idea, but we have the 'Return the Favor' cards at the county clerk's office," Barmore said. "It's for honorably discharged veterans. We currently have 55 businesses signed up and 350 veterans. You can come to the clerk's office and they give you a card ... and you can go to any of the listed businesses and get the discounts they offer. One thing I'll push is to make sure every veteran in the county knows about this and every business knows about this."

After the election, Barmore said he is ready to face the upcoming challenges of his position.

"I can't wait to get to work," Barmore said. "With Vince (Horrigan) at the helm, the economy is going to move forward."